This invention relates to a prefabricated tile panel and a method for production thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to a tile panel consisting essentially of a flat rectangular or square substrate board having side-long rectangular convex portions and concave portions of specified dimensions arranged by turns and a multiplicity of tiles arranged regularly and bonded onto the substrate board.
The advantages of ceramic tile walls and the like are well known especially for bathrooms, shower rooms, kitchens, etc. The setting of tiles at a construction site, however, requires a painstaking, time-consuming and skilled task. With the present high labor costs and the accelerated rate of construction, the conventional methods for installing tiles are extremely costly and time-consuming. The recent trend toward modular housing construction, wherein housing sections are factory built and joined together at the construction site, has further spotlighted the shortcomings of the traditional tile installation methods.
Thus, a variety of prefabricated tile panels including tiles bonded onto substrate boards or the like and having panel-securing means such as anchors have been proposed, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,646,180 and 3,817,012; the description being incorporated herein by reference to show the state of art and the foundation works for installing the prefabricated tile panels.
The prefabricated tile panels having convex and concave portions around the substrate boards thereof have been known in the art, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Applications Nos. 37245/1971 and 37663/1972. The devices disclosed therein, however, seem to be impracticable paper plans, because they can hardly be installed effectively and efficiently. More specifically, the devices are different from the tile panel of the present invention in both the dimension and arrangement of the convex and concave portions. With reference to FIG. 5 attached which is shown in the above mentioned Application No. 37663/1972 and partly similar to the panel of the present invention, the vertical sides of the panel start with a convex or concave portion and end with a convex or concave portion or the shapes at the opposite corners of the panel differ from each other and, moreover, a side-long length of the convex portion is substantially the same as that of the concave portion. Thus, at least two types of the tile panels are needed to assemble and install the tile panels. This is troublesome at a construction site and especially so when such tile panels with patterns or designs are to be installed. Moreover, it is difficult or even impossible to insert the convex portions of a tile panel in the concave portions of other tile panel for installation of the tile panels, especially when some deviations or warpages took place upon the installation. In this connection, an approach to establishing small clearance between convex portions and concave portions is not successful because, when one tries to insert the convex portions of a tile panel in the concave portions of another panel, the convex portions of the neighboring side of the former panel overlap the convex portions of other adjacent tile panel as illustrated in FIG. 6. It has also been considered in the art that the clearance between the convex and concave portions of such a tile panel should be as small as possible to set assembled tile panels firmly. Incidentally, as far as the present inventor's knowledge is concerned, the prefabricated tile panels described above are not on the market.
Thus, the present inventor has made intensive researches on such prefabricated tile panels to accomplish the present invention and found that the above described problems or troubles can be solved or eliminated substantially by the prefabricated tile panel of the present invention. The inventor has also accomplished an effective method for producing the present prefabricated tile panel.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel prefabricated tile panel to be installed readily and rapidly by those unskilled in the art.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel method for producing the present prefabricated tile panel.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description.